Bringing the Railway to Daming

Since Zhu Gang was going to be a vassal in Egypt in later generations, he naturally did a lot of preparatory work, and intelligence work was one of them.

He had long learned from Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Kuan that the northern coastal and northeastern areas of Africa were mostly inhabited by white people. Although there were black people, they were mostly slaves. The Egyptian area had been ruled by white people from Europe and West Asia for many years.

Therefore, in addition to recruiting a thousand Mongolian herdsmen as cavalry support as Zhu Yuanzhang had suggested before, he also recruited 500 Seljuq warriors to form an Iron Guard Corps, so that they could easily sneak into the local city and act as internal support.

Now that they are ashore, the Iron Guard has indeed come in handy.

After sending out the Iron Guard, Zhu Gang and Qin Xu and other generals agreed on the plan to attack the city of Suez. They immediately returned to their ships and deployed their troops.

The new Mamluk dynasty established by the Caucasians, mainly the Circassians, called itself the Burji Kingdom, which is a transliteration. If it is translated literally, it can be called the Ta Kingdom or the Ta Dynasty.

Because he, like the old Mamluk dynasty, implemented the Iltā system - a tower-style feudal system composed of military aristocrats headed by the Sultan. Taxes from all parts of the kingdom were contracted to military generals stationed locally to serve as military expenses.

The Burji Kingdom proudly optimized (extremely) this system.

The Lord of Suez, Kedivuf, was a military noble who ruled the area within dozens of miles around Suez.

He had 5,000 semi-professional troops under his command, most of whom were stationed in the city barracks. He himself had experienced the war in Barkuk to pacify the Turks and had a lot of war experience.

Upon hearing that a huge fleet was coming from the sea and bombarding the port with a powerful weapon similar to a catapult, the naval commander Karash sent by Cairo fled without a fight. Kedivov was shocked and angry.

After scolding Karash, he immediately led 3,000 soldiers to the port to prevent the enemy from landing. In his opinion, since the enemy had hundreds or even thousands of warships (as the escaped general said), landing would definitely take a long time and might not be completed in half a day.

Unexpectedly, when he left the city and arrived near the port a few miles away, he saw that an unfamiliar army of several thousand people had occupied the port military camp and various key points.

Kadiwolf cursed again, "That bitch Karash is truly a scumbag chosen by those bureaucrats in the royal city. If he had held the port for a quarter of an hour or two, I wouldn't have been left without a chance to stop the enemy from landing!"

After saying that, he immediately ordered to return to the city.

A small group of cavalrymen who had just been scouting ahead engaged the enemy cavalry, but within a short while they were all shot dead. This showed that this strange army was definitely not weak in combat on land.

The most important thing is that the enemy has already landed, so there is no need for him to take the risk of starting a war outside the city.

After returning to the city, Kadiwolf arranged troops and slaves to defend the city - although the enemy seemed to be numerous, he was still confident in defending the city of Suez.

Although Suez is a port city, its walls are more than two meters high, and there are various defensive equipment such as arrow towers and catapults on the city walls. There is also a lot of food in the city. He brought 5,000 troops and 3,000 military slaves, so he thought it would be no problem to hold out for ten days or half a month.

By then, no matter how slow the Cairo bureaucrats were to react, they should have sent reinforcements, right?
About an hour later, Kadiwolf had arranged the city's defense very well, and the enemy appeared two miles outside the city.

Seeing the enemy pushing out a number of horse-drawn carriages, which seemed to have some kind of equipment on them, Cadiwolf asked an officer nearby, "Are those the enemy's new catapults?"

The officer, who had escaped from the navy into the city, said, "That's right. Lord City Lord, these new catapults can hit over two miles away, and the sound is like thunder, which is very scary. I'm afraid we can't handle it."

Kadiwolf thought for a moment and gave the order: "Withdraw half of the troops and all the slaves. They will come up to defend the city after receiving my order."

"Yes!" The guards received the order and left.

When most of the soldiers on the city walls had withdrawn, the enemies outside the city also formed their battle formations. Then Kadiwolf witnessed with his own eyes the power of the enemy's new catapults.

Boom boom boom...

Amidst a series of "thunders", stone bullets hit the city walls or the city, which made Kadiwolf's face change - the enemy's catapults could actually hit so far.

He didn't dare to be careless and hid in the tower on the city wall.

Unexpectedly, not long after he entered, the enemy's second round of bombardment came, and many shells fell near the tower or inside the tower, and then the screams of Kadiwolf's guards were heard from the tower.

"City Lord?!"

"The city lord is dead!"

The officers and soldiers who were nervous and frightened after experiencing two rounds of artillery bombardment looked at each other in bewilderment...

On May 19, the 22nd year of Hongwu, Prince of Jin Zhu Gang led his troops to land in Africa from the port of Suez and captured the port city of Suez on the same day.

On May 25, Zhu Gang used the Iron Guard composed of Semites as internal support, and led 2,000 guards, 3,000 Jinfan Guards and 2,000 Xihai Guards to capture Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Empire.

"If we only consider the territory of the Mamluk Kingdom, it's probably not even as large as the provinces of the Ming Dynasty, yet the royal palace is built so lavishly. No wonder, even though they have a dedicated combat army, their combat effectiveness is not as good as our garrison troops."

In the Cairo Palace, which blends Islamic and local architectural styles, Zhu Gang naturally sat on the golden throne inlaid with various gems, and looked down on the corruption of the Mamluk Empire with a smile on his face.

Below, Zhu Gang's chief of staff, the Imperial Guard's military advisor, Wang Xu, waved his folding fan as he heard this. "I've heard that the Mamluks were founded by military commanders. Each of these commanders commanded a varying number of elite troops. They devoted themselves entirely to warfare, not production, and were once quite powerful."

"However, the country actually made local military commanders responsible for collecting taxes. Isn't this heading towards the same path as the warlord system of the late Tang Dynasty? Even with this system, the country was able to last for over a hundred years before a new dynasty came to power. This is quite unusual."

Fang Gui, another staff member in charge of intelligence, said, "The Mamluk system does have many shortcomings. I heard from the Iron Thousand that in many places, the city lords not only oppress the common people with high taxes, but also use this as a means to annex farmland, seize businesses, and force the common people into slavery."

After saying this, he couldn't help but shake his head - he now realized that one would never know how happy the lives of the people of the Ming Dynasty were unless he went abroad.

Wang Xu continued, "Although the gold, silver, and coins we seized from the royal treasury this time aren't much, once we confiscate the property of those officials and nobles, I'm sure we'll reap a lot." "However, Your Majesty will need the help of the locals in governing. Could you please select a few of these officials and nobles and give them lenient sentences?"

Zhu Gang snorted after hearing this, "I've seen all those people. They're all bloated and fat-bellied. I don't think many of them are good. If we want to choose someone from them, we'll need to carefully select them."

"Even if there are indeed a few who can be used, they have numerous connections here. If they are employed, I'm afraid it will sow many hidden dangers for our Jin State."

"It would be better to directly promote available talents from among the mid- and low-level officials and officers who are willing to surrender to us. These people will not only be more capable of doing the job, but will also be more loyal to our Jin State."

Wang Xu had no connection with the Mamluk bureaucrats and nobles, and he had just made a casual suggestion. Seeing that Zhu Gang had a better idea, he did not say more.

In the next few days, Zhu Gang was dealing with the follow-up matters of taking Cairo.

In addition to confiscating the property of high-ranking bureaucrats and nobles of the Tatar Dynasty and selecting available officials and officers from the middle and lower levels, another major event was to free the slaves and use them as soldiers to form an army.

This matter was compiled by Zhu Gang after he understood the Mamluk system and the national conditions at that time.

Because it was a semi-slave society and the country was already corrupt, the Mamluks now had a large number of slaves, including serfs, military slaves, labor slaves, and female slaves.

For these slaves, we certainly cannot do as in some movies and TV shows, where the protagonist simply declares "You are free" on the spot and call it a day - that is not called giving people freedom, that is called destroying the original social order.

Slaves have no property or means of production. If they are set free, how will they live?

Free slaves have no means of livelihood, so they can only steal and rob, and will become large groups of thieves and robbers.

Therefore, Zhu Gang, under the advice of several staff members, adopted different policies for different types of slaves.

As for the military slaves, Zhu Gang personally recruited those who were willing to submit to him, promising to distribute land on the spot and turning them into the new Jin vassal garrison troops. As a result, he subdued more than 10,000 military slaves in Cairo alone!

As for serfs and labor slaves, they were converted into official slaves and temporarily given certain preferential treatments, such as better food and clothing, compensation, and even certain labor subsidies.

After taking over the entire Mamluk Kingdom, these serfs and labor slaves will be divided and governed.

In addition, the garrison troops who were converted from military slaves would not immediately distribute land according to the standards of immigrants. Neither Zhu Gang nor Qin Xu would forget that the immigrants from the Ming Dynasty (not only Han people, but also Mongols and Semites from the Ming Dynasty) were the core of their establishment of the regime here.

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Three days later, Barquq, who was recruiting troops in Rosetta, received the news that Cairo had been captured. He was shocked and confused.

In his view, although the bureaucrats and nobles who betrayed him in Cairo were incompetent, they controlled nearly 30,000 troops and more than 20,000 military slaves, which added up to 50,000 soldiers.

In addition, the city of Cairo is tall, with the city wall alone being more than three meters high. Even if an army of 100,000 came, it would be no problem for the 50,000 soldiers in the city to defend it for a month.

But Cairo was taken down by an unidentified enemy coming from the sea in less than half a day!

After coming to his senses, Barquq grabbed the collar of the young nobleman who had reported the news, pulled him in front of him, and practically lifted him up. He glared and asked, "You're not lying to me? Cairo really fell in less than half a day?"

The young nobleman hurriedly said, "How could I dare to lie to Your Majesty? To be precise, from the moment the enemies appeared to the moment the city was breached, it took less than two hours."

"How did they do it?" After getting a definite answer, Balkuk's expression became solemn.

The young noble said, "They have a very powerful new type of trebuchet. Its bombardment distance is several times that of ours, and some of the stones explode after landing."

"Also, their insiders infiltrated the city at some point and attacked the city gates during the siege, quickly breaking through the city."

Balquq put the young noble down and asked again, "You really don't know where they come from?"

"They look a bit like Mongolians, but they're probably not Mongolians—they're carrying a red flag with a strange snake coiled on it."

Barkuk was disappointed that he hadn't heard any useful information. He asked again, "Then you should know roughly how many troops they have, right?"

This young nobleman was able to escape after the fall of Cairo, so he must have some skills, and he must have some knowledge of the Battle of Cairo that lasted less than two hours a few years ago.

He said, "Your Majesty, those men were no more than ten thousand. If it weren't for the powerful new catapults and the help from within, they wouldn't have been able to capture the royal city."

"These people come from nowhere, speak no language, and are enemies to everyone. Countless people in the royal city are eager for Your Majesty to return and rescue them."

"Your Majesty, this is a golden opportunity for you to regain the throne. Send your troops quickly!"

Seeing that Balquq's attitude had become "friendly", the small nobleman advised him to send troops to retake the royal city. Although he was only a small noble, he had several shops in the royal city and many fields outside the city.

Not to mention, his family, slaves and other properties are still in the royal city, so he naturally hopes that the royal city will return to the hands of "his own people" as soon as possible.

The enemy is less than 10,000?
Balkuk's eyes lit up as soon as he heard the young noble's first words.

He has now gathered more than 50,000 soldiers and horses in Rosetta. He originally wanted to wait until he had gathered an army of 100,000 before returning to Cairo to regain the throne.

But now that Cairo had been captured by another group, and their army was less than 10,000, what was he waiting for? Was he waiting for this group to slowly send more troops to Cairo?
Although the troops defending Cairo previously also numbered 50,000, they were commanded by the bureaucrats and nobles who betrayed him. How could their combat effectiveness be compared with the 50,000 troops under his unified command?
What's more, when outsiders first occupied Cairo, they would definitely be unpopular.

He has the advantage in military strength, the people are on his side, and he is even more familiar with Cairo. If he were to attack Cairo now, Barquq would surely win! (End of this chapter)